Ruskin puts it more strongly. “No book is worth anything until it has been read and re-read and loved and loved again; and marked, so that you can refer to the passages you want in it, as a soldier can seize the weapons he needs in an armoury, or a housewife bring the spice she needs from her store.” There are two ways in which self-culture by the aid of reading may be sought—by taking books and by taking subjects. Some deem it best to read “the best books” or the best authors straight away; and as we write these pages the eager application by the public for the “Hundred Best Books” (so-called) is significant. The other method is, to read by subjects—to take up, for example, some one period of the world’s history, and see what different writers have said or thought about it. The latter method may be very good, but implies a great deal of time, and access to a great many books. [Illustration: PODOBIZNA.] What of attending lectures as a means of culture? There are few towns at the present day where there are not facilities for the would-be student to avail herself of “a course” on some subject or another, even if there is not “a centre.” Much scorn has been lavished on the “University Extension” movement, and we are told of the working man who inquires, “Which d’yer like best, ’Omer or Hossian? Hossian’s my man; ’e knows a deal about natur’, does Hossian.” It requires strong faith to believe in that working man. The whole question of the advantages of the movement, and the appropriateness, or absurdity, of its title, cannot of course be examined here. But if any girl reader has the opportunity of attending a series of lectures on some subject in which she is, or ought to be, interested, we may offer her a few hints. Go by all means; but do not sit in the lecture hall week by week, and expect the words of the speaker to do everything that is needful. Study the books he recommends to you diligently and conscientiously. Do not be so much occupied in trying to scribble down what he says _verbatim_ in your notebook that you are left far behind in hopeless bewilderment at an early stage of the proceedings; but listen attentively, and above all do the paper work set every week. When you have accomplished this much, do not be deterred by the alarms of wounded vanity from going in for the examination at the close of the course. You need not, and will not if you are sensible, suppose that you have received in any sense a university education; but you will, especially if the lecturer be one of the noted men we could name, have acquired a distinct addition to your mental store of wealth; and this is no slight advantage, for it may urge you to go on and on acquiring more and more. “’Tis the taught already that profits by teaching,” as Browning says.